


The Blood God

by SunaTsukino



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: My First Fanfic, Original Character(s), Sad Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade-centric (Video Blogging RPF), idk where im even going with this fanfic, ill add more later, wait i can add more tags later right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:54:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29311431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunaTsukino/pseuds/SunaTsukino
Summary: Technoblade had been content to play Minecraft through a screen, in all his years of playing the game. He never asked to be in it. And he most certainly did not ask to be on hardcore, stranded and alone with no real idea how to get back home.But he was getting back home.[Technoblade being boss at a video game even when he is stuck inside one fanfic B) Villagers are actual character and certain mobs can think and speak! Inspired by the anime Overlord :)]
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 134





	1. Stranded

**Author's Note:**

> Technoblade pov

It was late at night. I rubbed my dry eyes under my glasses, taking them off and putting them down as I sighed, stretching my arms up. My whole body felt stiff, having been sitting in front of my computer for at least a few hours since I last got up. I put my glasses back on and picked up my phone, wincing a little at the time. It was late. Really late. I had been up grinding for better armor and farming in minecraft for hours now, but I only now realized just how long I had been at it.

  
With a sigh, I hit escape and clicked on the disconnect button. I turned off my computer, and slid out of my chair. Once I was submerged in darkness, I really started to feel that weight of tiredness come and hit me like a tidal wave. I was so exhausted, in fact, that I was unable to do anything but drag myself to my bed and fall onto the sheets. The comfort of the bed below me lured me into a deep sleep in the matter of seconds.

  
A warm breeze woke me from my deep sleep, as my eyes slowly fluttered open. I immediately winced- it was too bright out for my liking. I groaned, covering my poor eyes and turning on my side. Why was it so bright? Did I somehow sleep past noon? Very quickly, I realized that I wasn’t in my bed as soft grass tickled my neck. I blinked my eyes open again, adjusting to the bright sunlight as I sat up and looked around in somewhat of a panic.

  
Where. The hell. Am I. My eyes turned, surveying the landscape. I was surrounded by rolling hills, the grass low with pockets of flowers helping to color the picture before me. I could spot on the horizon, a line of trees. I rubbed my eyes again, slowly rising to my feet. Was I dreaming? This was an awfully surreal dream if it was. I put my hand on my hip, noticing that the fabric wasn’t the comfortable t-shirt and sweatpants I had on beforehand. I looked down at myself, inspecting my new outfit.

  
I was wearing grey jeans, the fabric feeling sturdy yet comfortable. They were tucked into a pair of nice new black combat boots, seeming to be freshly shined. I almost laughed at that thought, thinking of the irony. ‘Do your shoes need shining?’ I thought to myself with a laugh. I was wearing a red sash and a white button up shirt, and a long red fur coat. My eyes widened as I realized what exactly I was wearing. I caught sight of my hands- they weren’t my hands. They were more pink than I remembered- not super pink, but not the color my hands were. And my nails- the hell? My nails were long and pointed, more like talons than actual nails. And they were black. I couldn’t tell if they were painted or just like that. Shit, if my hands were like this, was my body the same? I didn’t have a mirror, I couldn’t tell. My hands came up, feeling my face all over. None of it felt the same. My two bottom canines were larger, as if I were some kind of animal, or some orc from a fantasy game. Not to mention my ears… They were seated at the top of my head, flopping over like… Like some kind of dog or pig ears. They were leathery though, like skin rather than fur. But then my hands came up and felt the crown. The golden crown.

  
I realized, then, what I had become. What I had become in this strange dream, was my minecraft character. It wasn’t exactly my character, as I had a pig head on my avatar and not this more humanoid creature. At least I was humanoid from what I could tell… But this was becoming too real to be a dream at this point. I doubt the human mind could make me experience the feeling of being in a different body. Just for good measure, I pinched myself.

  
Yeah, that hurt. This isn’t a dream. What the FUCK is happening? I felt myself start to panic, the crushing feeling of fear and anxiety pressing hard on me. How could something like this happen? How was something like this possible? ‘No, no I have to get a grip. Fear will only hinder me in this bizarre situation.’ I tried my best to push away my fear and stand up. I have to figure things out, and figure out a way to get back home. First, I had to get more information.

  
Just as I was thinking that, an empty hotbar slid into my vision. It looked like minecraft’s- There were levels, a hunger bar, and a health bar. I gulped a little at the hearts, seeing as they had the texture of hearts in hardcore mode. Did I only have one life, one chance to get back home? Or could I go home when I died? I wasn’t going to test that last thought. I brought my gaze to my hunger bar, grimacing at the fact that my mental crisis had somehow burned through three bars already. If this was like hardcore, it wouldn’t be long until I starved to death. If this is like minecraft, wouldn’t I have an inventory? I looked around for anything that could open up my inventory when I noticed a plus sign at the edge of my hotbar. I brought my hand up, feeling a little awkward trying to press it. It was like the hotbar wasn’t really there, just a part of my vision somehow. I was successful though, the plus sign having opened my inventory as I had hoped. It was also identical to minecraft’s inventory system. Where my avatar would be, however, was an outsider’s view of myself. I blinked, watching my reflection blink. I was… Pinkish. I had pink hair too, pulled back into a ponytail with bangs and pieces pulled out. My long hair made me look somewhat womanly in my opinion. But my features… They didn’t seem that womanly. I had narrowed eyes and a more toned figure- Lucky me! I didn’t have to work a single bit for this body! But the scars confused me. I had one from my right jawline to my cheek, and one across my nose. There seemed to be more scars than just on my face, some more scars peeking out from under my coat.

  
More importantly, there was a space for crafting. So was this like minecraft? Could I just punch a tree to get myself started? I turned, looking for the nearest tree before making a beeline for it. As I stood before it, uncertainty bubbled up in me. What if I just hurt myself instead? I had to once again, push down my feelings of fear as I reached my fist back, and slammed it into the tree. I felt the solid tree against my fist, but it surprisingly didn’t hurt. I tried punching it a few more times, then the tree completely fell over, turning into what looked like items. I reached for them, picking them up and watching them appear in my hotbar. ‘I guess this world doesn’t like floating trees,’ I thought to myself. Either way, easier for me. The fallen bits of the tree only gave me three logs. I punched the tree by the base instead, and got two more logs. I opened my inventory, coming to a roadblock. How do you move up items in your inventory..? I scratched my head a little, before trying a few things. I tried pinching first- that didn’t work. I tried to imagine the inventory as my phone, and slid my finger over the item and dragged it to the squares for crafting. To my surprise, it worked!

  
“Heh?!” I exclaimed, noticing it only picked up _one_ log. That would be utterly painful if that was the only option for crafting and moving items. Well, it was whatever for now. The option to craft planks appeared, and I awkwardly tapped at it, surprised to see that it worked right away, the planks jumping into my hotbar. With a sigh, I slowly put the planks in my crafting box one by one to make a crafting table. There had to be a faster way, but I would have to investigate that later. For now, it was more important that I find food and shelter. If this was truly like minecraft, then monsters would be out as soon as it got dark.

  
It was time to figure out how to place objects. I rolled up my sleeves now, pressing at the crafting table in my hotbar, surprised to see a cube appear in my hand. It felt like a wooden cube, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand but textured like a crafting table. I tossed the cube, finding that I threw the cube instead of placing it down, the item hovering over the ground like it would in game. I blinked in confusion, moving closer to inspect the odd hovering to find that it quickly flew back into my hand. I scratched the back of my head, trying to throw the block directly down to the ground instead of tossing it, pleased to find that the cube had grown in size on it’s trip to the ground, looking like a proper crafting bench. I opened my inventory next to it in hopes it would open up the inventory with no such luck. I closed it again, looking for a plus sign around the crafting table instead, finding nothing. Great, another mystery to solve. With a groan, I sat down fiddling with the screens in my vision.

  
Eventually, I figured out that there was no screen for the crafting table, I just pulled things from my inventory and put them on the actual block. Before long, I had crafted a wooden pickaxe and was ready to find a bit of exposed stone. A quick glance told me I would have no such luck. I settled for punching out a staircase of dirt to some stone, lucky enough to find some coal while mining out myself a hole.

  
It was therapeutic, doing something so quiet and mundane as collecting stone. It gave me some time to think to myself and clear my head. This was minecraft- I was sure of it. I wasn’t sure why I was in the game- and it was safe to say that it wasn’t a dream either. It had to be the work of some otherworldly being, I could only guess. What was I here for, and why? How could I get home? As much as I loved this game, I didn’t want to risk death out here. Perhaps the key was beating the game. Speedrunning wasn’t my specialty at all, but maybe if I beat the ender dragon, the end credits would give me some answers or better yet- send me home. I paused my mining, running a hand through my pink hair. Then that would be the goal- slaying the ender dragon without dying. There was no way I would risk it, especially with the hardcore textured hearts floating above my hotbar. Speaking of which, I had lost another three hunger bars mining out stone. I was becoming dangerously close to starving.

  
Poking my head out of my hole, I noticed that animals were in the field that weren’t there before. The sheep in particular made me grin. I ducked my head back in my hole, throwing down a crafting table and making a stone sword before I hopped out of my hole, chasing after the sheep and slashing at it.

  
My grin dropped when I realized the sheep didn’t briefly turn a shade of red as I slashed at it like it would at the game, but rather the sheep let out a pained scream as the side of the sheep started bleeding out, blood splattered on my blade and hands. As the sheep wailed and hurriedly tried limping away, I stood in shock, the warm sticky sensation on my hands not quite feeling real. I realized I needed to quickly put the sheep out of its misery, so I stalked after the sheep, not quite feeling like I was in this body as I slowly trapped the fleeing sheep, grabbing it by the horns and bringing my sword to its neck. My sword wasn’t sharp enough. I swallowed my disgust as I heard the bone crack and hear the sheep start shrieking in newfound pain. Faster- I had to be faster and harder. I couldn’t do this anymore. I gripped my sword, slashing and hacking at the neck of the sheep until it came off, even though its cries had long ceased.

  
I stood there, holding a bloody stone sword and the head of a sheep I was still holding by the horn, sheep blood having coated the green grass, the gory, lifeless body laying on the ground. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, staring at that lifeless body.

  
“Blood for the blood god,” I murmured to myself.

  
Without much else thought or words, I used my sword to peel off the sheep’s wool and cut pieces of bloody meat. Once the wool and meat were in my hands, they appeared in my hotbar. I had gained two pieces of wool and four pieces of mutton. I felt numb, as I walked back to my hole and made a furnace, watching my mutton roast in the furnace as my mind replayed the death of the sheep.

  
Unbeknownst to me, this was only the beginning of the loss of my humanity.


	2. Diamonds

I managed to shake the image of the dying sheep out of my mind after I ate the cooked mutton, filling my hunger bar back up. I was so out of it, I didn’t even notice how the meat tasted. Maybe if I had been paying more attention, I would have known if the meat needed salt to taste good. 

The sun started to set. I could tell it was getting dark outside as less sunlight came through my hole, my entire workspace becoming darker. Well, if I could call it that. If I had a bed, I would be able to sleep through the night- but would I really be unable to sleep? I didn’t want to kill another sheep purely on the bet that I would be unable to sleep without a bed. I gathered some dirt in my inventory and went up to plug the hole for the night, when I caught a glimpse at the sunset. 

It was… beautiful. The sun painted hues of red and orange across the sky, turning the clouds shades of pink. The colors blended as the last rays of light faded into sapphire skies dotted with little white stars. I was somewhat stunned, sitting and admiring the sun until it dipped under the horizon. 

I quickly remembered what I had been there to do, and put down dirt to cover my hole. Thankfully, this word didn’t seem to have gravity affect dirt, at least. Once it was put in place, it was packed tightly enough that it didn’t slip. I noticed with no amount of pleasure that the action also had gotten my hands dirty with loose dirt. I would much rather use wood as a building material in the future. This dirt felt awful on my skin.

I felt a little tired, but not tired enough to not make use of my time down here. I could test out if I truly needed a bed later. I picked up a pickaxe and started digging down. 

After what felt like ages, I hit bedrock. It seemed the further you went down, the hotter things got. I had taken off of coat and sash, leaving them upstairs and had unbuttoned my shirt much before I had hit bedrock. My plan had been to dig until I had hit bedrock, then go up enough levels to be at the best diamond mining levels. Hopefully if this world was like minecraft, then it would have similar physics- at least I could hope. The bedrock felt almost otherworldly. It looked completely black, and when I had accidentally hit it, the shock reverberated up my arms and mildly shook me in my chest. I dropped my pickaxe and sat down for a moment, recovering before I took another look at the bedrock. It was a dull black color, the exterior matte, and it was striped with regular stone. I felt a deep pulling towards it when I got too close, and I wasn’t exactly sure I liked it. I quickly turned from it and counted up the layers of stairs I had made and started my strip mining.

After what felt like hours, I broke into my first cave system by accident. I cautiously peeked my head out, peering around the dark cave. I brought the torch I was holding out, not seeing any mobs. What if monsters didn’t spawn at all in this world? A dark cave like this was sure to be riddled with them in harcore difficulty. But atlas, I saw nothing. Well, that was until I spotted some beautiful diamonds glittering in the torchlight.

My greed quickly made me throw caution in the wind, a grin coming to my face as I switched to my iron pickaxe and fully dug my way into the cave. I put a torch down and freed the diamonds from their prison of stone. It was easy enough- my pickaxe couldn’t damage the blue tinted jewels at all and they slid right into my inventory. I was on the forth one when I faintly heard a clatter of bones and the groan of a bow being pulled back. Dread and fear suddenly turned my veins ice cold. I quickly flipped around, but not fast enough. From the darkness, an arrow shot forward and buried itself in my shoulder, sending burning, fiery pain through me. I cried out in pain, blood staining my white shirt as the skeleton pulled back for another shot. Voices started crowding my head suddenly, telling me what I was to do. 

‘ _RUN! The diamonds, Don’t leave the diamonds- IT HURTS! RUN! Hunt it. Make it pay for hurting you. IT HURTS! RUN! You aren’t ready for battle! RUN!!’_

The voices crowded my mind, arguing and telling me to do different things. It made me stunned for a moment, trying to quiet the roar of words in my head and the pounding of the searing pain in my arm. The sound of the skeleton pulling back the bow again cut through the voices, and it woke me up from the overwhelmingness that froze me in position. I scampered back up to my tunnel, an arrow flying over my head and clattering against the stone walls of the cave. I stopped, quickly reaching into my inventory and turning to plug up the hole. 

As the adrenaline faded, the pain from my shoulder came pounding back. I slowly made my way back up, painfully clutching my shoulder. My health bar showed me that the skeleton did two hearts of damage. The arrow was still stuck in my shoulder though, and I didn’t know what to do. If I just ripped it out, wouldn’t the arrowhead get stuck in my shoulder? I felt my panic rise again, closing my eyes and leaning against the cool stone of the hole I dug myself and called my home as I tried to think. The voices returned, slowly and gradually, as if they were constantly there and I simply needed to ask for their help. I hadn’t questioned them in the cave, but if they could be of any help or advice in this situation, I desperately needed it. 

‘ _Finally. WE ARE HEARD! Technoinjured pog? Just rip it out! NO! Dig it out. Use the sword. EAT!! Uh oh. TECHNO LISTENING POG Is the blood god dying?’_

Out of all the words and voices I was hearing, I was able to pick out the most useful ones, the ones with wisdom. At least, I hoped they had wisdom. If I needed to use the sword to dig out the arrow, that’s just what I would have to do. I pulled the stone sword from my inventory, my hands starting to shake as I took it to my shoulder, crying out in pain as the sword cut through into my shoulder. It hurt, it hurt so much, but I was able to widen the gash in my shoulder enough to carefully slide out the arrow. There was so much blood everywhere, I started to get queasy. The blood loss was also making me rather lightheaded, but I did notice that I had lost another half a heart. I still had seven and a half hearts left, so why did I feel like I was dying? I grabbed my red sash, wrapping up my shoulder and pulling some more cooked mutton from my inventory. It was still warm, even though I had been in the mines for hours. I regained my hunger, feeling somewhat better, but the world was still spinning a little. Maybe I just wasn’t used to pain that this arrow hurt me so much. Maybe it was possible to lose hearts from bleeding out. Either way, I couldn’t think anymore and I simply laid down on the floor on my back and passed out.

* * *

When I came to, I felt uncomfortably stiff. Really, really stiff. I felt like I hadn’t gotten a good sleep, or that it had only been a brief nap. The pain in my shoulder was gone though, and I pulled my sash back to show that indeed the injury had healed up, a pale line from where I cut with my sword remaining. I sighed, looking at my blood stained shirt and sash before getting up. Well, it was good to know that having full hunger magically healed me. My hearts were back at full. I was still rather exhausted. I peeled back some of the dirt plugging the stairway up to the surface, quickly putting the dirt back when moonlight trickled into my little underground base. So, still night. Either an entire day had passed, or it really hadn’t been that long in the mines and when I passed out. With a deep sigh, I figured I needed to do something with my time now that I was awake, and pulled out my pickaxe again. I headed back down the mine, ignoring the bloodstains on the stone staircase now. Looking down my original tunnel, I decided to mine the opposite side. 

As I went along, mindlessly digging out a long tunnel, my thoughts drifted to the voices. They acted just a little like my chat. I was somewhat regretting my decision to add that to my character lore, but how was I supposed to know that it would carry onto this world- nonetheless that I would even be in this world? How _did_ the voices carry on to this world? Were they people, watching me right now like how people would watch my live streams? I tried tapping into the voices again to hear their opinion. 

_‘IDK LOL. I don’t remember. We’re voices pog! STUCK. e. mining 4 diamondz’_

I huffed. Terribly unhelpful. If they were stuck in my head though, that meant they probably weren’t people, just… minds. I wasn’t sure about that. The concept that they brought outside wisdom somehow, knew more than I knew… I couldn’t really come up with a good conclusion. It wasn’t like I could do much about the voices though, so I just kept mining. 

I avoided caves, not ready to face another mob after that experience. Whenever I came across them, I plugged them and changed my direction. Thanks to my hours spent digging tunnels, I finally got enough to make a full set of diamond armor and tools. I hadn’t even gotten a bed yet! But mining gave me time to think, and I found enough iron and had enough sticks to keep going, to keep tunneling. Next, I needed an enchanting table. For that I needed water, above on the surface. I certainly wasn’t going to look around in some caves for water. I had already found a pocket of a lava lake, I just needed the water now. 

I hesitantly dug out some of the dirt again, relieved to see that it was day. I opened up my inventory, moving my armor to the slots next to my person. With a small glow, the armor appeared on me. It didn’t really look how it did in minecraft. It was much more subtle- the helmet didn’t show up at all. I could _feel_ it there though. The armor hid under my fur coat nicely, the chestplate leaving the top part of my chest exposed, and was tucked under my sash. The leggings were similar, leaving a lot of my legs still exposed, especially around my joints. I raised a brow at how protective this armor would be exactly, but I just hoped it would be like my helmet. The boots- they looked like they were simply plates of diamond sewn onto my shoes. Either way, I felt much more confident. This time too, I had sheers so I could make a bed without that gorey scene. 

‘ _You can’t run from the blood forever,’_ a voice whispered in my head. ‘ _Blood for the blood god.’_

A shiver went down my spine. That voice wasn’t like the other voices, which I only occasionally let speak for the sake of wisdom or company. This one let itself in, giving me unpleasant thoughts and images. 

… C’mon man. I play minecraft for a living. I’m not suited for this kind of gore.

With a sigh, I opened up the hole and got out of my little underground base. 

* * *

After finding some sheep, I sheared some sheep, grabbing some flowers and making red dye. I was very pleased to know that I could take an actual rest when I got back. The exhaustion was slowly getting to me, and sleeping on the floor only offered stiff naps. It wasn’t a good source of rest, so a bed was very much desired. I looked around for a small pond I could pull some water from, wandering to the tree line after the vast fields offered me nothing I could use. I noticed a small pond on the other side of the treeline, smirking to myself some as my pace hastened a little. I took out my bucket, kneeling by the water as I scooped some water out. 

I felt a pair of eyes watching me though, so I quickly picked my head up from the pond and glanced around to see a golden eye staring back at me. I blinked a little in confusion, standing up and inspecting the stranger.

It was a child, their hands and face dirty yet still pale. They had jet black hair, a white and mildly tattered eyepatch over their left eye, and wore an overused, oversized sweater and pants. They had patches in spots, their clothes clearly falling apart. Their hair was odd too, being cut short and messily but some hair from under their short hair pulled into a thin ponytail that stretched down to their knees.

They met my gaze unflinchingly, staring at me with wide eyes. However, they did take a step back, like they were going to return from where they came in the forest. 

“Uhm, hi,” I offered. They looked human- were they someone else stuck in this world, like me? Another player? They looked rather young, but I minecraft was a game that was rather infamous for having quite a few younger players after all. 

They jumped a little, as if surprised that I even spoke. Their eyes widened, and made a fascinated expression. “You can… talk?” they murmured, although more to themself. 

“Uh, yeah, I can,” I responded awkwardly. How was I supposed to act to a child I found in the forest?

“But you look like a pig,” they responded, looking me up and down, no doubt noticing the crown on my head. “King of pigs?” they asked, pointing to my crown. 

“Uh, no, not really.” I suppose with my pink skin, tusks, and ears, I would look like a pig. 

They thought for a second. “Piglin? But you’re not in the nether. You turn zombie here, but you’re not zombie.”

Yeah, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was either. “My name is Technoblade,” I said, hoping that if this was a player, they would have heard of me.

“Noctis,” the child responded, walking closer and holding their tiny white hand to shake. 

So they didn’t recognize me. That was a shame, but now that I had given this child my youtube name, I suppose I had to run with it. “Weird name,” I commented as I shook their hand.

“Yours is weirder,” they responded simply, walking to the pond and pulling up their pant legs to stick their dirty bare feet in the pond water. 

“So… You stuck here too?” I finally asked. 

“No,” they responded simply again. “I can go home if I want. I’m not stuck. Or lost.”

That didn’t give me a lot to work with, since I couldn’t tell if they meant that they could teleport home or if they just lived in this world. I cleared my throat again, coming up with a better question. 

“You… live here?”

“No, I live over there,” they said, pointing to where they came from. “Ish.”

“Is there… Other people?” I tried again. This kid wasn’t giving the answers I needed, and the conversation was extremely awkward. Maybe it was just awkward for me though, as the kid gave quick and confident answers, but I couldn’t help but feel like this kid didn’t actually enjoy talking. 

“Yeah. M’ mom’s dead, so I live with neighbors,” they said, lightly kicking their feet in the water. 

Oof. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that one. “I’m… sorry for your loss,” I tried. “That’s really rather unfortunate.”

“Yeah.” 

The silence stretched for a while. “So which way is the village again?” I asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence. At least, it was uncomfortable for me. 

The kid got up, doing a little dance to shake off the water from their feet. “You’ll get lost. I’ll show you.” Without any other words, they simply started walking to the forest, back from where they came from. I wordlessly followed. 

Noctis led me through the forest, clearly knowing the route better than I did and clearly not going in a straight line. It is a good thing they decided to show me the way, because I would have gone in that one direction until it got dark. Speaking of, I checked my inventory to see that I had everything on me, so I really didn’t need to go back to my hole for anything other than massive amounts of cobblestone and that lava pool. Besides, I had a feeling that I would much rather sleep in a house rather than a hole tonight. 

As we exited the forest, I watched a fenced village come into view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I farmed potatoes in minecraft for 6 hours and wrote this chapter. Saturday well spent.


	3. Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its village time bby

Noctis walked through the forest, not speaking to me likely out of preference. I found it slightly ironic that I, Technoblade, second worst thing to happen to orphans, was here following one out of the forest. Well, it was entirely a bit anyways, but I still found it a little ironic. Actually, now that I was considering it, the child had said that their mom was dead but not their dad. 

“Are you an orphan?” I questioned out of the blue, stepping over a root. It wasn’t sudden from inside my head, following my train of thoughts, but it came out that way.

Noctis made a face, perhaps showing the most emotion I had seen from them so far. “I am  _ not _ an orphan. My dad is still alive. He’s just…” They stopped in their tracks, making me pause too. 

After a moment, Noctis didn’t continue their thought, but returned to their walking through the forest. I guessed somewhat this was a story of a dad that never came back home, with Noctis still in denial. 

So, orphan.

I didn’t ask anything else during our walk through the woods, the canopies above providing shade and lightly shaking the leaves when a cool breeze came though. It was actually quite relaxing here. The shade should have let zombies and skeletons survive, but I didn’t see anything in the forest other than the animal life scurrying away at the sight of us. I knew the monsters were real and existed- my encounter with the skeleton in the cave proved as much. My hand went up to the scarred surface at the thought, gently prodding the spot with lingering confusion on how quickly I had healed. 

Deep in thought, I had my head down and didn’t notice we were exiting the forest until sunlight suddenly lit up my world and momentarily blinded me. I looked up, my eyes adjusting and taking in the view of the fenced in village in front of me. 

We were still rather far away, but I could see the fences that reached up roughly five feet high. The fencing was made up of wooden planks with about two inches in between them to save on wood, I assume. The gate was lower, and a young man with a sword stood outside the gate. He could be called the gatekeeper, but he also wore rough fabric and no armor, but perhaps that’s the most the village could offer in terms of defence. 

As we came nearer, his eyes narrowed a little at me, clearly suspicious and a little surprised. He gave Noctis an accusatory glance, the child seeming to not notice it or ignored it. We stopped in front of the boy. 

“Hey Noctis,” the young man said to the child, glancing briefly down at him before up at me.

“Hi.” Noctis simply said back. 

“Monsters aren’t allowed in the village Noctis. You have to say goodbye to this weird piglin thing you made friends with or whatever,” he said, eyeing me up and down. So piglings did exist, which also meant that the Nether existed as well. Interesting. 

“Yeah but he can talk,” Noctis told him in reply, leaning back on their heels a little while pointing to me, clearly unbothered by what maybe was meant to be an insult.

“That I can do,” I finally spoke, nodding a little. The young man’s eyes turned the size of dinner plates, jumping a little at the sound of my deep voice. He quickly moved back, putting a hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. I didn’t really get how me speaking was cause for sudden caution. 

“How-” he sputtered, staring at me while his entire body went tense. “Who are you? How are you- a speaking piglin?”

“Technically,” Noctis piped up, putting their hands behind their back, “All piglins can speak, they just don’t know common language.” I picked up a hint of teasing arrogance in their voice, to my amusement. It was a useful and interesting bit of information as well. 

“My name is Technoblade. I don’t have any of my memories, so I can’t tell you of my origins,” I spoke, opting to go for the classic amnesiac backstory. It would help explain my own confusion about this world to others, and my appearance was enough of a surprise to these people that it seemed that my explanation would likely not go well. “I travel around and try to regain my memories of places I may have been in,” I continued politely.

The young man stared at me for a little while longer, glancing down at Noctis. “Well, you certainly haven’t been anywhere around here. I’ve never heard of a speaking piglin,” he spoke, caution and confusion in his tone. He slowly moved out of his position that had been posed to attack. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let you in, but you ought to cover your face. Folks will get scared of you,” he warned. 

Noctis looked up at me, before taking off the little ratty cloak that they had, holding it up to me. “It had a hood,” they said simply, and I hesitantly accepted it although it looked much too small. I put it on and pulled up the hood, the cloak turning into more of a shawl on my bigger body. It did work though, the hood large enough to pull forward and hide my face. The guard nodded a little in acceptance. 

“That looks fine. You can come in now, but I’m telling the village elder about you, just in case,” he warned once again, moving to the gate and unlatching it, opening it and letting us in. It was a fair precaution. 

As the village opened up, I could tell that this was an active, bustling place. There was a center full of shops and vendors, people buying mostly food and some artisan pieces. The village was packed full of little homes and huts, the nicest of which was located near the town center. I assumed that one belonged to the village elder. There were travelers too, one or two had sat down around the main square and set out a blanket to sell their goods. Some of the kids played in the dirt streets, some of them helping their parents, and some of them leaving to the gate with baskets on their back, for what I assume was gathering food from the forest. 

The hood worked quite well, hiding my face from the other villagers which kept me labeled as just another traveler, although my clashing appearance of the ratty hood and the fine red fur coat I wore got me a few looks. I supposed that I needed a better cloak first. 

“What kind of currency do you use here?” I asked the child. I had found a total of three emeralds in my time strip mining, my luck quite good. Still, it would clearly not be enough for something like a place to sleep and a new cloak, if an emerald had the same value here as it did in the game. 

Instead of offering a response, Noctis instead pointed out to me an exchange happening between a vendor and a buyer, where metal coins were used as currency. Well, shit. This world’s established money system would be problematic for me to get proper funds- unless I could trade something. I pulled up my inventory without much thought, looking at the gold I had stashed in my pockets for potential piglin trading. If they had an established money system more like the real world, perhaps gold bars would have big values like they did at home. I doubted it though, since the gold was easy to acquire. It wasn’t exactly rare like diamonds were, and it didn’t take too long for me to come up with three and a half stacks of gold bars. 

“Is there a blacksmith I can trade with in this town?” I finally asked Noctis after thinking for a bit. Noctis had simply been standing there, looking around. I’m sure they just wanted their cloak back. I would have given it back already if I had another one.

Noctis didn’t respond, simply walking in a direction and expecting me to follow. At this point, I’d grown accustomed to their lack of speaking. I didn’t mind it, if anything. Someone who talked a lot might have been easier to get information from, but they would have been that much more annoying. Noctis provided me with answers when I asked, and that was perfectly fine. 

I followed the child to a hut where a muscled man was pounding out a sword shape out of heated metal, the sound ringing out. I had heard it from a while away. The blacksmith ignored us both at first, focused on his work. Neither Noctis or I could particularly gather the courage to stop him from his work, both of us awkwardly standing there and waiting for him to finish. Eventually, his gaze flickered away from his work and towards us before flicking back to his work. He finished up before he spoke, his voice low and grumbly. 

“Can I help you?” he questioned, although it sounded more like a statement rather than a question, the man looking at me while crossing his arms. He was rather intimidating, and I could feel my anxiety building up. Noctis hid behind me, and I felt somewhat childish to be nervous of speaking to this man. I tried treating it like any other time when I ordered something from a restaurant in my head, and I calmed. 

“I have metals I’d like to sell to you,” I told him. “Are you interested?” 

The blacksmith wiped his hands on a rag, thinking to himself. “I  _ am  _ running rather low on a few metals. What do you have?”

“I have iron and gold,” I spoke, pulling a single bar of iron and gold from my inventory while my hands were in my pockets, letting it look like I had them in my pockets all along. I held them out for him to inspect, his eyes widening a little as he took them. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a man who had a gold bar in his pockets,” he mused, inspecting the bars. “This is good iron. This is good gold too, but this village only buys purely functional pieces. You won’t find anyone rich enough to buy gold gilded armor,” he spoke, handing them back to me. I slid them both in my pockets. “I’ll give you a good price for the iron.”

“How much?” I asked, glancing to Noctis for maybe a slight indication on what would be a good price. They were still hiding behind my legs, seeming to be nervous. It was interesting to me, how this orphan was unaffected by a piglin joining their forest time, but was cowering behind me at the sight of a blacksmith. 

“I’ll pay ten silvers for a bar,” the blacksmith said after some thought.

I thought about asking him to raise the price, but I didn’t know if he was overpaying or not, and I was already getting a little ready to end this interaction. “You have a deal then. How many bars do you want? I have a lot,” I told him.

“Ten bars will be enough. Bring them sometime today and I’ll pay you then. I can buy that one in your pocket now though,” he spoke, stepping inside his shop and emerging with a small pouch of coins. I handed him the bar and took the bag, peering into it and counting out the ten silvers. Hopefully this would be enough for a cloak. I noticed though, that the man assumed I didn’t have the silver on me and also assumed that the gold and silver truly did come from my pocket. I guessed that magic really wasn’t a thing here, nor was an inventory system. 

‘ _ I guess I have to be careful about using my inventory in front of other people. So am I just different? Am I a player while these people are just NPCS?’ _ I thought to myself, glancing down at Noctis. 

I bid my farewells to the blacksmith, walking away with the orphan child at my heels, still somewhat hiding behind me. It was thanks to Noctis I even found this place or found the blacksmith, so I had to be grateful to them. I dug a hand in my pouch, pulling out a silver coin and holding it out to Noctis. They blinked in confusion, taking it before looking back up at me. 

“It’s thanks,” I told them, mildly amused at their confusion. “For showing me around and letting me borrow your cloak.”

Noctis looked surprised, opening their mouth to protest, but looked down at up between the coin that had been placed in their tiny hands and me, before a slight smile came on their face. “Thank you,” they mumbled, pocketing the money away. 

“Let’s find a better cloak, alright?” I offered a slight smile, although it was mostly hidden by my hood. Noctis still smiled a little at me, nodding and led the way to a clothing shop. 

* * *

The clothing shop was quaint, and unlike shops I was used to. The clothing was put into baskets, sorted by size and type. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that Noctis had led me to what was essentially a poorer version of Goodwill. I shuffled over to the basket of cloaks, sorting through them and realizing with a somewhat frustrated huff that all of these cloaks were just as rough and patchy as the one Noctis let me borrow. If hiding my face was going to be a trend, I wanted something more comfortable against my skin. The modern day clothing truly had spoiled me. 

With the conclusion that this shop was no good, I made my way back to Noctis, who gave me a questioning look as they poked through some of the clothes with curiosity. “Are there… Any nicer shops?” I asked awkwardly, Noctis seeming to be unoffended by my lack of pleasure with their first choice. That was good. It made me relax a little. 

Noctis stood up and walked out, and I followed. Thankfully, the next shop was much better. They had new clothes instead of used ones, and the quality was good. I went through them and picked out a crimson cloak that pleased me. It was a much darker shade than my coat, making me less noticeable, but it was still a nice color of red. 

As I shopped, I noticed that Noctis was distracted and kept looking at black messenger bag that was on display. I walked over, the cloak I was planning on buying hung over my arm. “Why don’t you get it with your silver?” I questioned, looking at the bag and the blatant admiration Noctis had while gazing at it. 

“I should save my money for food,” they mumbled quietly, looking away from the bag. With a sigh, I picked up the back and headed over to the store’s clerk to buy the items. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling so generous, but Noctis had proven to be a pleasant child to be around, and clearly was some degree of impoverished. 

“These two,” I told the clerk with a grunt, who seemed to be somewhat intimidated by my stature. I found it laughable. 

She looked at the items, using one of those wooden sliding things I had only seen in movies. I guessed it was some kind of medieval calculator. “That’ll be two silvers and a large copper,” she spoke politely to me, and with a slight huff I pulled out three silvers. Oh well, at least I was going to get this money back tenfold whenever I came back to the blacksmith with that iron. What was a large copper though? Despite my confusion, I put the silvers on the counter. 

“I only have silvers. Do you have change?” I asked, feeling a bit of mild embarrassment. If silvers were a lot, then I surely looked like some kind of bragging moneybags for not having change. 

Despite this, the clerk didn’t treat me any differently and took the silvers, giving me nine large coppers in return. So ten large coppers equaled a silver. Good to know. I piled the coppers in my pouch, turning back to Noctis and giving them the bag, to which they gave me an expression full of both joy, admiration, and gratitude. It was nice giving gifts to people who needed them and who appreciated them. 

Noctis stared at the floor, clutching the bag with some amount of happiness and confusion, confusion I could only chalk up to being due to a lack of understanding why I would get them the bag. “Thank you,” they mumbled once again after finding their words. 

“You’re welcome,” I spoke with a slight smile.

We walked out of the shop, and I walked around, trying to find a secluded area where I could quickly switch between the cloaks. A question I had thought of before rose up in my mind, trying to come up with a good way to ask it. 

“Noctis, is there such a thing as magic?” I asked, cutting myself off from saying the ‘in this world’ that I wanted to say. 

Noctis’ eyes widened a little, looking up at me and stopping. 

“There is,” they spoke, their normally emotionless tone full of them. 


	4. Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late post! I spent most of my free time this week replaying undertale again ^^ I also drew Noctis in the style- It's on my twitter @suna_tsukino if you're interested in seeing it!

When we came to a secluded area, I took off the little cloak that Noctis had lent me and quickly put on my red one, pulling the hood down once again. With both the fur coat and the cloak, it was a bit too much clothing, so I took off the coat. I blinked a little in surprise that a pixelated image of my coat appeared in my hot bar when I held it in my hand. I flipped to an empty spot in my hotbar and the coat disappeared from my hands. Huh.

Noctis had noticed my armor finally when I took it off, my coat having hid most of it earlier. They seemed surprised, like diamond armor wasn’t common, but their expression quickly fell back to a face of neutrality, similarly to how it did after I asked about magic. 

“So, magic,” I started, turning around back to Noctis and handing them their coat back. 

“You shouldn’t use the magic that you just used for your coat in front of others. It’s dangerous,” they said quietly, looking away. 

Ah. I had forgotten about the whole hiding my inventory feature thing because it was just me and Noctis. From what they said, it sounded like hiding it had been a good idea. 

“Dangerous how?” I questioned. 

“You’ll get reported and a lord will take you away. Make you fight in their wars. That’s what happened to my dad,” Noctis murmured. “It’s the law.”

I blinked a few times. So it wasn’t that magic was hated, but rather sought after for its power. Power to be used to fight for some lord in some faraway war. It bothered and irked me more than I liked to admit. Especially because it took away Noctis’ father, when they already had no mother. These lords had left a child to fend for themselves for their wars. How many more were like Noctis? 

The anger that flared up inside of me made me loosen my grip on keeping the voices quiet. I was worried they would act similarly to how I wrote them, and that they would demand blood when I came into contact with people, so I made sure to keep them pushed out of my head when I came into the village. 

_ ‘KILL THE LORD blood for the blood god BLOOD! Government caused this. PROTECT THE CHILD! Find their father? i like noctis lol BLOOD KILL’ _

I rubbed my head a little, hissing a little at the headache that came about from me failing to silence the voices. At least they agreed with me on this, but it wasn’t helping me to stay reasonable about this situation. I had barely known Noctis, so I wasn’t sure why I felt like I had to do something about their father. The voices were quite adamant about keeping Noctis around though, when I tried to internally argue back. 

I spoke when I got the voices to a dull roar for blood in the back of my mind. “I see. Thank you for telling me, I had no idea. Will you keep my secret?” I asked, glancing at the child. I wouldn’t blame them for ratting me out, especially since it was law. 

Noctis blinked. “Obviously. Why would I not?” they questioned bluntly, making me laugh some. 

“You’re right, you’re right. I bet you have a bit of a bone to pick with that law.” I spoke when my laugh had died down some. 

Noctis’ lips twitched up in a smile at my laugh, looking away a little, as if embarrassed to be smiling. “That, and you’re my friend.”

I blinked in surprise a little, my heart warmed some by the sentiment. My face warmed and I looked away, sighing somewhat shyly as I rubbed at my neck. “T-Thanks kid. I guess I-I consider you a friend too.” That came out way more awkwardly then I meant it to, making my face heat up a little more. Thank god for the fact that I was wearing my hood. 

“I have my own secret too you know,” Noctis said, pointing a little to the ground. I dropped my gaze down, where Noctis was pointing to my shadow and the shadow of a bird beside me. I looked around. There was no bird. The shadow of the bird tugged at my cloak in the shadow, and surprised me when I felt an invisible force pull the same way that the bird did in the shadow. 

“Woah,” I gaped a little. “That’s really cool Noctis,” I admitted with a bit of a smile, Noctis smiling back a little as the bird in the shadows flew off. “Wait, so do they take kids too? The-The law?”

Noctis’ smile dropped as they nodded solemnly. “Yeah. Kids too.”

My mouth went dry as I tensed, eyes wide. “That’s- They can’t do that!” I exclaimed, suddenly overwhelmed by fury. Children, taken to fight in wars. That went too far. Clearly this world that I had been taken to was much more fucked up than I expected.

_ ‘BLOOD BLOOD KILL KILL BLOOD  _ **_KILL THEM ALL_ ** _ ’ _

Noctis hopped up from the crate they had been sitting on, their own eyes widening a little in worry. “Techno- someone will hear you!” they spoke in a whisper loud enough for me to hear.

I breathed out through my teeth, clenching my fists and calming myself down. I wasn’t usually this quick to anger, but the voices were more influential than I thought on my emotions. This  _ really _ wasn’t good. I had to add bloodthirsty voices that affected my emotions as one of my problems I would have to deal with in this world. 

“Sorry for raising my voice,” I muttered, rubbing at my now pounding headache. I sat down, hoping that would help. It only came as an afterthought that Noctis might have been scared of me suddenly snapping. Thankfully, I couldn’t see any fear in their eyes or expression. I sighed out, leaning back. 

“It’s ok,” Noctis said simply, glancing around. “We shouldn’t stick around here though, in case someone heard you.”

That was smart. Was criticizing the laws also against the laws here? It wouldn’t surprise me if that was true. I got up again, and walked back with Noctis. 

Unbeknownst to me at the time, someone had been watching us from afar.

* * *

I told Noctis I wanted to sleep in an Inn, and they led me to a tavern of some kind that was serving lunch. I glanced at my hunger bar- finding that I was on five hunger. I hadn’t eaten since I finished off the mutton I had gotten from killing that one sheep- and had since run out of food. I could go for some lunch. 

“Sit anywhere you’d like! I’ll be right there!” a woman called as she brought empty bowls back into the kitchen. She had red hair and a touch of a southern accent- and just sounded kind and warm. I walked to take a seat somewhere, Noctis stopping and fidgeting a little behind me as if mentally debating if they could sit with me. I gestured them over, and they seemed to relax and quickly follow me to the table. 

“You hungry at all?” I questioned them, smiling a little from under my hood. 

Noctis blinked, looking away. They weren’t showing much on their face like usual, but I could tell they were somewhat pouting. It seemed to have gotten easier for me to read their faint expressions. “I can pay for myself this time. You’ve been too nice to me.” Their eyes flickered to the bag that was still on their shoulder, pulling it off and putting it into their lap. 

I chuckled a little. “I never said I would pay for you,” I countered, watching with mild amusement as Noctis’ pout turned into more of a small scowl. 

The woman from before came back over to our table, giving us both a warm smile. “Good afternoon! It’s nice to see your face around, Noctis! We’ve got a lunch special of salmon- or I have stew for tonight if you rather that,” she informed us, turning a bit more to me. “It may be a bit early to start drinking, but I do have a selection of mead-”

“Water will be fine,” I told her. “I’ll take the stew, thank you.” I really couldn’t risk drinking of any kind in this body, nor did I really have any desire to. 

“I want fish,” Noctis said simply, looking to be not as uncomfortable with her as they were with the blacksmith. Perhaps because they seemed to know each other?

“Alrighty, I’ll get that to you in just a moment,” she said with her bright smile remaining, walking away. 

“You know her?” I questioned Noctis as soon as she was in the kitchen. 

“I sometimes play with her daughter. She’s a bit loud though, so I stopped hanging out with her.” Noctis explained, resting their head on the table. 

Huh. I wasn’t really expecting Noctis to have made a friend- they seemed more like the lone wolf kind of person. Although, remembering how they stuck around so close to me, I quickly realized that I had made a very incorrect assumption purely based on how little Noctis spoke.

The woman came back with a tray that had a plate of salmon and a bowl of steaming stew as well as half a loaf of bread to go with my stew and mugs of water. I murmured my thanks to her, to which she gave me a grin back and headed back into the kitchen. 

I mentally wondered if I could put the stew into my inventory like I had with my coat. As long as I didn’t move to an empty slot in my hot bar, it shouldn’t disappear if it could. I carefully picked up the bowl with my right hand, humming in a bit of thought as it didn’t appear in my hot bar. The loaf of bread didn’t appear either. Bread was an item in the game- as well as stew- although it was rabbit stew and this was perhaps not rabbit stew. I stirred the stew a little as I contemplated. 

It perhaps didn’t work because they weren’t exactly in game items- but my coat wasn’t an in game item either and yet could be tucked away in my inventory. My mind came up with a somewhat reasonable explanation for the mechanics of my inventory system that connected my earlier theory that the other people of this world didn’t have inventories because they were NPCs in a way. 

It was possible that I couldn’t put this stew and bread into my inventory because they weren’t produced by a Player. Without the crafting system, bread had to be made with flour, water, and yeast in an oven after hours of resting and baking. For me, I could take wheat and turn it into bread in an instant. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to say that the two ways of making bread would make different kinds of bread, with different properties. In other words, any items that can be crafted have to be crafted for me to be able to store them. The coat might be different though, since it was given to me. 

“Do you not like it?” Noctis questioned, snapping me out of my thoughts. I glanced down at the stew that was no longer steaming, and realized that I had been staring at it for quite some time. Noctis had cleaned their plate while I zoned out, making me think that I really had been in my head for a while- or just maybe Noctis was a fast eater. 

“No, I just was a little lost in my thoughts,” I spoke, finally picking up my wooden spoon and trying some of the stew. It was good. 

After eating the stew and bread, I found that it brought me back to full hunger. Since Noctis was so adamant about paying for themself this time, I let the child use the silver coin I had given them to pay for their meal and paid for my own, catching the rate they were charging for their rooms before I left, finding a secluded area again where I slipped the iron bars out of my inventory and borrowed Noctis’ bag to hold them. 

We returned to the blacksmith, who paid me for the iron with not silvers, but golds. Just a handful of them though. There were seven gold coins and twenty silver ones in the pouch I was given. Since I was to be paid ninety silvers, I made a guess that these gold coins had the same value as ten silvers. Then why didn’t he just offer a gold instead of a silver? I sighed a little, but shrugged it off. It didn’t matter that much to me. I could get just about anything I wanted in this world with my crafting ability.

As I was leaving the blacksmith, he finally caught sight of my diamond armor from underneath my cloak. “Hey wait-! What kind of armor are you wearing? I’ve never seen any blue metal before like that,” he spoke, moving towards me. I stopped, turning back to him and became immediately uncomfortable when he picked up the edge of my coat and lifted it to get a better look at my armor. I quickly moved away, trying to come up with a response to his question. 

“It’s diamond,” I said quickly. Shit, maybe telling the truth was a bad idea. In real life, diamond armor was most definitely not feasible, and it was likely the same here as well. 

I got my answer when the blacksmith laughed loudly at my response. “Diamond armor-! Please, diamond armor is impossible. Well, I mean I’ve heard stories of diamond armor being a common relic of the [Players], but if you actually had a relic from one of the [Players], you wouldn’t be talking to a blacksmith in this little village right now, would you?” 

My mouth went numb. [Players]? There were other people? People who knew how to play, who could craft things like diamond armor that would ordinarily be impossible? He talked about them like they were no longer here though, and that they had left a long time ago if their items were referred to as relics. I had to look into the history of this world then, and see if they were still here or if they had found a way home. Worst case scenario, they had died in the world without finding a way to return. I realised that I was becoming suspicious to the blacksmith thanks to my silence. 

“Uh, yeah. It’s a uhm, bit of a joke. Pleasure doing business,” I said quickly, walking away from him with Noctis following after me. 

Maybe it would be best to take armor off in town to avoid attention like that. I didn’t really want to be under equipped though, especially if an NPC tried attacking me. Maybe I would just have to wear iron armor in town. For now though, I couldn’t risk pulling out a crafting bench to make myself a new set, and I wasn’t willing take off my diamond armor when I had already acted suspiciously and had a pig head for fuck’s sake. I sighed somewhat to myself, stopping when realizing that I really had no idea where I was actually going. 

“Is that really diamond armor?” Noctis asked very quietly, glancing at the bits of my armor that were peeking out from under my cloak. I glanced at Noctis, thinking a little before answering. The child already knew a good handful of things about me that could get me dragged away, telling them the truth probably wouldn’t change anything. 

“It is,” I spoke, a slight smile tugging on my lips a little at Noctis’ mildly amazed expression.

“Where did you get it?” they asked, looking up at me. That one I couldn’t tell the truth on. Telling them that I made it myself was a little too dangerous. 

“I don’t remember,” I said simply. “I don’t have my memories, remember?”

“Oh. Right. Does that mean maybe you’re actually the pigling king without realizing it?” Noctis questioned as I started walking to the inn, Noctis following me along. I snorted a little at the idea.

“Maybe, Noctis. Maybe,” I told them with a slight grin.

The rest of our walk was generally quiet, as the sun finally started to set and people headed into their homes and packed up their shops for the night. 

“The inn is loud at night,” Noctis quietly complained as we caught sight of the building, humming in thought to myself a little. Well, it made sense if it was a tavern as well as an inn. As we neared it though, it was actually pretty quiet. It seemed to put even Noctis on edge a little, noticing something was wrong. 

I carefully opened the door to the place, glancing at tense patrons who immediately glanced at the door when it opened. Noctis hid behind me somewhat, and both of our gazes fell upon a group of men clad in detailed iron armor. They looked to me, then at Noctis, and drew their swords. 

“Noctis Williams, you are to be drafted in the Lord’s army for your magical abilities. You will be rewarded with great honor after our win. Come with us immediately.”

The color in Noctis’ face immediately drained. 

Shit.


	5. Chase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank the weekend for this speedy update :]

“Noctis Williams, you are to be drafted in the Lord’s army for your magical abilities. You will be rewarded with great honor after our win. Come with us immediately.”

Noctis took a fearful step back, and I instinctively stood in front of them, tense. How did this happen? Why now? Did someone see Noctis in the alley- but then what about me? I used my inventory around then, so I should be on their list too. Right? It was possible that someone only spied in on us only after I had used my inventory. 

But what was I supposed to do now? Noctis was only a kid I met today, but they were a child nonetheless and did not deserve to go to any kind of war. 

_ ‘PROTECT THE CHILD kill them BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD Kill!!! NOO NOT NOCTIS’ _

Now was NOT the time for these voices to come out and fuck up my emotional state. From under my cloak, I put my diamond sword into my hotbar. I wasn’t trained at all in how to wield a sword, but maybe I could overwhelm and surprise these guys. 

Wait, why was I thinking I would protect Noctis? I could be putting my life in danger here for Noctis, and I would become a wanted criminal. I mean, I didn’t need to utilize these civilizations to beat the ender dragon- if that would even bring me home. The voices urged me to risk my life to save Noctis though, and it was getting difficult to push them away. 

A yelp from behind me pulled me out of my thoughts, alarming me and making me turn to see that there were more men behind us. One had grabbed Noctis’ wrist, and my emotions and the voices took over my logical thought. 

I rushed forward, pulling Noctis back towards me and slashed at the man with my diamond sword to make him drop the child’s wrist. I had to protect them, and I wasn’t going to let them take Noctis away to fight in a war.

My sword was much more sharp than I had initially thought, as the man screamed in pain, his hand dropping the dirt road beneath him. 

“It’s time to go,” I told Noctis, quickly tossing them over my shoulder and dashing away as the chase began. Noctis yelped in surprise, staring back at the man who was in desperate need of a hand. Get it? Hand? Because he- oh whatever. 

I could feel the adrenaline rushing through me as I sprinted down the streets, my larger frame in this body helping me a lot to keep distance. Noctis pushed up against my shoulder to try and look forward, internally trying to figure out a way to get us out of the village, I could only guess. I could turn and fight these guys, but if they worked for the lord of this area, they might have magical abilities and proper sword training, unlike me. I just had a crazy sharp sword and landed the first attack.

“Not this way! This is a dead end-” Noctis tried to warn me, but it was too late. The men from before had already reached where I could have exited the alleyway before I could turn around. We were boxed like a fish. I ran until I hit a wall, starting to look around for anything that could help me quickly climb up. I could always tower out with dirt- but that would be showing these men that worked for a lord seeking those with magical abilities that I had the power of a [Player]. That had ‘bad idea’ written all over it, but I started to think I had no other option as the men slowly crept forward, catching their breath with faces that looked self assured of their victory. 

I felt for my diamond sword. Maybe I could kill them all right here. Slaughter them all on the spot as punishment for trying to drag a child into a war, for being lambs to the government, enacting their pathetic backsided sense of justice on those weaker. I heard the voices demanding blood. They all wanted me to do it. To kill. I felt oddly calm, thinking through the swiftest way to slaughter these men in front of me. 

Noctis tugged at my cloak though, and quietly whispered in my ear. “Look at the shadows,” they spoke. 

I pulled my gaze away from the men I was plotting to murder, subltly glancing at the shadows, the moonlight coming from above providing shadows of the house that was to my east onto the house on the west. There was the shadow of a staircase up the rooftops, a staircase that didn’t exist. 

Noctis had built us a path out. 

“Just cooperate with us and this will be painless,” one of the men said as I backed up more, trying to figure out in my head where this staircase was in reality. It was rather hard to get up on something completely invisible after all. Once I had solidly figured out where it was though, I caught the men off guard when I suddenly moved forward and  _ up _ . I scrambled up the invisible stairs, the shadow of them disappearing once I had moved forward so the men couldn’t follow me. Before long, I had made it up the rooftops and took a short breath before bolting across them and towards the village gate. 

That was  _ terrifying _ . As much as it was cool to see that Noctis essentially had the power of barrier blocks, walking on them without knowing if they were there, especially while being chased was not a fun experience. After we got some distance and got close to the gate, Noctis spoke up nervously. 

“Wait… We’re going outside? B-But it’s dark out right now,” they spoke timidly, worry and fear subtly etched into their tone. 

So monsters  _ did _ spawn at night. That would be an issue for our escape- since there was no way I could have the energy to keep at this chase around town until the sun came back up. I took a moment to glance at my inventory. I had some building blocks, I could build us a temporary shelter once we had gotten enough distance. Surely those men had some ounce of self preservation and wouldn’t chase us down outside in the night, right? 

I put Noctis down, letting them stand on their own two feet for a little bit until I rushed out into the wild. “We’re going outside. They won’t chase us when we’re out there and I can build us something when we’re far away enough.”

“But the monsters will try to kill us. The men at least, they wouldn’t try to-”

“You rather surrender here and be sent to war to die? You would only be prolonging your suffering, not surviving.” The kid had a point though. But what Noctis didn’t know was that I was prepared to kill those men back there. I probably  _ would have  _ killed them if Noctis hadn’t rescued us there. And if we were faced with another situation like that, I would probably kill them. I didn’t want their blood on my hands. I didn’t want the guilt, and I already was disturbed by how ready and prepared I was to mercilessly slaughter them. I was being selfish, putting Noctis’ own life at risk because my own bloodthirst scared me. 

Noctis backed down at my retort, staring down into the lit streets of the town before looking back up at me with a faint trace of a look of hesitant trust. “Okay. Let’s go then,” they spoke quietly, taking and clutching my hand. 

I tried to stop myself, but the gesture warmed my heart until it turned into complete goo. I wasn’t sure why I meant so much to me in that moment, but it overwhelmed my fear of what was to come as I scooped Noctis up with one hand, my sword on the other. “Can you make another bridge? Like the stairs you made back there?” I asked Noctis.

They shook their head. “It was really tiring to make that staircase and hold your weight. I can’t do it again so soon.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with my weight?” I joked a little with a snort. “You tryna tell me to lose a few pounds?”

Noctis’ face broke into a little smile at my attempt of a joke, filling me with a bit of satisfaction. “No, you’re just a giant pigmen king.”

“Fair point there kid. Fair point.”

I surveyed the rooftops, looking for a point close to the gate that I could safely jump over. I carefully navigated my way around the rooftops until I had gotten to the rooftop point that I had spotted, leaping over the fencing of the little village. 

“Bye bye,” Noctis murmured to the sleeping village, the place where they had lived out their childhood and lost both parents. Their home that they could no longer stay in. Maybe if they had known they would be leaving so soon, they would have properly said goodbye to their friends and the neighbors that had taken them in. 

* * *

I very quickly concluded that I absolutely hated skeletons. I could outrun zombies, spiders, and creepers, but skeletons shot at me from afar like complete wimps and made my running that much harder. I could feel Noctis’ grip on me tighten as an arrow whizzed right by my head. Even if it had hit, I was sure my invisible helmet could take the hit, but I also didn’t want to take any chances or damage in the first place. 

An oversized spider- like  _ christ _ these spiders were  _ terrifyingly massive _ \- jumped on my cloak. I snarled in frustration, whipping around and slicing at the thing. The blue blood that got on my cloak was way thicker than normal blood and absolutely revolting-  _ and  _ had gotten all over my brand new cloak. I could only hope it didn’t stain. 

The hiss of a nearby creeper quickly reminded me that I was running for my life, and I resumed my run. As soon as I shook off a majority of these monsters, I would build us a shelter. We had gotten enough distance by now. 

I heard the groan of a zombie but more high pitched- and tiny little footsteps. Both dread and excitement filled up in me as I looked around and saw a baby zombie ahead of me. There was something I’ve always wanted to do in a world of minecraft but more realistic. As soon as the zombie had made its way up to me, I paused and pulled my leg back. 

With one hard, precise swing of my leg, I punt kicked that child up into the air. I exploded into laughter when I had seen that the baby zombie had been smacked up into a tree, weakly still trying to chase after me despite being impaled by a branch. 

My laughter was cut short by an arrow flying right into my torso, smacking my diamond chestplate and harmlessly falling to the ground. I huffed in frustration anyways that my one moment of enjoyment with these mobs had been cut off by another stupid skeleton. I turned the corner, continuing to run. 

I found a quiet area after some time, putting Noctis down and building up cobblestone walls. Noctis seemed a little too worried about monster attack to watch me build up walls out of thin air. I quickly pulled Noctis inside and covered the roof, putting down a torch and a crafting table to make a door, which I also put down rather quickly. Noctis seemed a little stunned by the speedy creation of the cobblestone shack, but seemed a bit too tired to ask questions. They simply sat on the floor with a sigh as I put down a bed. 

I sat on the bed, recovering a bit from our night as well. It had been a lot for me, and I’m sure a lot more for Noctis, who had to suddenly leave their home. 

“Well… are you.. Cold?” I questioned slowly. “I could make a fire for us. Cut out a small hole on the roof for ventilation and everything. 

“That would be nice,” Noctis said quietly. I could hear the exhaustion in their tone, and I made a campfire in my crafting table. Once I put it down, it was automatically lit, interestingly enough. I mined out a small hole in the roof so we wouldn’t have a bunch of smoke in the shack. Again, Noctis was too tired to ask about the automatically lit campfire that came out of seemingly nowhere. They simply sat and watched the flames for a little bit as I watched them. I wasn’t very good with this whole emotions thing, but I was pretty sure that Noctis must be in need of encouraging words or advice. But I didn’t really know what to say. After searching for anything I could say to Noctis to comfort them about being a refugee for a few minutes, I gave up. I took off my boots for the first proper sleep I would be having in this world and slid under the covers after unequipping my armor and pulling off the cloak covered in spider guts. I had a feeling that this bed was made just big enough for me, but I still found that there was a bit of empty space if I laid on my side. 

Maybe I couldn’t offer any words to Noctis, but I could offer the bed I had. 

I looked over at Noctis and patted the space beside me. “You should get some sleep, kid.”

They looked up from the campfire and a small smile twitched on their face as they walked over, taking off their own ratty boots and laying down in that small empty space. I pulled the covers over them and ruffled their hair. 

“Goodnight Noctis.”

“Goodnight Technoblade.”


	6. Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got bad carpal tunnel yesterday and had to have my arm in a brace. Still not feeling the best today, but we were a bit overdue for a chapter :]

I woke up in the morning feeling really refreshed, much more than I would in the mornings in the real world. It was a good feeling. With a stretch and a yawn, I pulled myself up and out of the bed, glancing at Noctis, who was still fast asleep. With a slight smile, I pet their head before getting my boots on and peaking my head out of the door of the cobblestone shack. 

The sunset was beautiful, warm, and pleasant. There was a nice breeze out, and monsters were nowhere to be seen in the forest, birds tweeting and singing sweet songs. Everything was quiet and still. Even the voices were calm, murmuring among themselves quietly. I could stay here forever. 

But I couldn’t. Now that the sun was up, it was likely that those men from before would be searching for us. Noctis wasn’t like me, and needed to eat meals regularly. I only ate when my hunger went down, which was much slower than most people. We would need more food for our journey. As much as I rather go vegetarian than hunt more animals, apples wouldn’t be enough for Noctis and we didn’t have time to start a farm. 

I peaked my head inside and put some things away as I prepared to collect wood and hunt animals down. Since I hadn’t gone tree chopping since my first day, I was running pretty low on wood. Collecting wood in this world was a lot faster though, because of gravity and what not. 

I crafted a bow from the string I had gotten killing spiders the previous night, somewhat stuck when I realized I had no feathers. Well, suppose that gave me more reasons to hunt chickens. As I was about to go, I realized that it probably wasn’t wise to leave without leaving a note of some kind. I took a piece of wood from the unlit campfire I had made last night, using a bit of flint to scratch “OUT HUNTING” onto the piece of wood, and put it somewhere where they could see it. 

I equipped my armor and pulled out my sword, finally heading out. I found a number of pigs wandering around in the forest, giving lazy, dazed looks as I approached with a sword. I sighed, feeling a bit of guilt as I knelt down to one, patting its pink little head and swiftly stabbing it around the heart. It squealed in pain, scaring the other pigs as it died. I got four pork chops from it, not as shaken up as the first time I killed a sheep. Not shaken up at all, actually. Just a mild feeling of guilt. I briefly wondered if I was slowly getting more and more desensitized to death, especially after my encounter with those knights. Were they actually even knights? Well, they were men fighting for a certain lord, so I supposed maybe they counted. Or maybe the title of knight was reserved only for those of noble birth, and those men were common soldiers. I didn’t really care much about those technicalities, it was just something to think about as I stalked along the forest floor, searching for a chicken or other animals I could kill. 

The feeling of guilt started to fade away as I killed more and more animals. It was mainly pigs and chickens, although I had come across a cow in my hunt. Once I thought there was enough meat to travel for a while, I headed back to the cobblestone hut. 

‘ _ Technolost’  _ the voices tried to tease as I walked. 

“Not lost. I’m the human GPS guys,” I corrected. “The hut is just right over…” I stopped, walking into the clearing where the hut was, Noctis looking up and staring at me. They had been actually washing off the spider blood from my cloak in the pond in front of the hut. 

“Who’re you talking to?” they questioned, tilting their head. 

Well. Crap. “N-No one,” I said quickly. I couldn’t tell them I was talking to the voices in my head. That sounded really bad, crazy bad. I didn’t want Noctis thinking that the pigling man they were traveling with had completely lost his mind. “I was just murmuring to myself.”

Noctis gave me an indecipherable blank look before standing up and shaking out the excess water on the cloak. To my pleasure, it looked like the spider blood had come out of the cloak rather easily.

“Thank you,” I said, moving over. “For cleaning that. I was worried it would stain.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Noctis said quietly back to me, handing me the cloak. There was a subtle sadness and aching in their tone, making me purse my lips somewhat. I couldn’t question it. I didn’t  _ want _ to question it. I felt somewhat guilty for wanting to avoid talking about anything to do with how Noctis was feeling, but I just couldn’t. 

I put the cloak on a tree branch to dry, going inside and putting the meat in a furnace with some fuel. I went out, chopping some trees down and collecting some apples, saving one for Noctis but turning the rest into golden apples. I briefly wondered if the golden apples would have the same effect on Noctis as it did a [Player]. I believed so, since golden apples were used on villagers in the game. I made some arrows too, after turning all my gravel into flint. I packed everything up, deciding to tear down the cobblestone shack in case it left a trail or any clues to our direction. I put everything I could into my inventory, burning anything that was clogging up my packed inventory before we set off again. 

We didn’t have a clear direction, mainly trying to get space between us and the village. It was a good time though, to ask as much as I could about this world and get important information. 

“I’ve been a little curious, but can certain monsters speak?” I questioned. 

“Almost all of them have their own language, except for like, spiders and skeletons. Zombies are a more gray area, since a lot of people think they just have their moans and groans and others think it’s a language.” Noctis explained, kicking around rocks in our path. 

“How can you tell with other monsters? That they have their language, I mean.” I questioned. 

“Well, it’s pretty rare, but sometimes there are hybrids,” Noctis explained slowly, not seeming to know as much about hybrids. “They’re usually kinda famous. Like- I know Cerastes! She’s a blaze hybrid and she’s one of the reasons why no one can kill blazes. She protects them. Hybrids are really super strong.”

That was a very important bit of information that sounded like a future issue. A super strong hybrid that protects the blazes? Huge issue. Huge, huge issue. If she was strong enough to keep the people of this world from blazes, a valuable resource, then there was a likely chance that  _ I _ wouldn’t have a chance to get blaze rods. 

Maybe I would have to find another fortress? Even if she was extremely powerful, she couldn’t bounce between two fortresses, right?

“Why not just find another fortress? Surely she can’t protect all of them,” I tried. 

“I don’t know.” Noctis said simply.

I suppose a village kid would only know so much. It was likely that Noctis’ knowledge could be slightly wrong or outdated, since without easy communications like we had back at home, news traveled around rather slowly. 

“What’s the uh… government situation like? Do you know?” I asked, glancing at Noctis. They probably didn’t know a lot, but any information would be better than none. 

“What’s government mean?” Noctis asked. 

This was worse than I thought. “Well… I should say, do you know what’s up with the lords of the area? Like the name of the lord or anything?”

Noctis thought about it for a moment before answering. “Lord Florence. That’s the current lord, and the one that took my dad away. There’s been territorial wars since I could remember between Lords. Lately there’s been a king trying to unite the land through peaceful relations, but Lord Florence refuses to join him. Lord Florence is the most powerful of the Lords, but Florence is a complete prick,” Noctis spat, voice full of venom. 

“Oooh, where you learn a word like that?” I teased, Noctis blushing some with a huff at my teasing. 

“All the lords conscript magical users, but Florence is the most forceful and terrifying.” Noctis continued, deciding to ignore my teasing. “If my family had the money to take the journey to a different lord’s land, we would have a long time ago. Florence keeps people from leaving the land with a heavy border tax thing.” Noctis looked to be growing increasingly frustrated. It was entirely understandable. 

I pat Noctis’ head in reassurance. “Well, we’re already criminals. Nothin’ stopping us from skipping a stupid toll now.”

Noctis smiled slightly at me, looking away. Their stomach growled, so I stopped. 

“I think now’s a good time for a lunch break,” I said, pulling a roast chicken from my inventory. It smelled pretty good, actually. I really needed a plate of some kind, since I was getting chicken grease all over my hands. I could make a bowl though… 

I briefly put the chicken back into my inventory, pulling out a crafting table and quickly making a wooden bowl. I dumped the roast chicken in the bowl, handing it to Noctis. “Here you go.” I pulled out the apple too, Noctis taking the bowl and the apple. The chicken was still warm, surprisingly. 

I leaned against a tree as Noctis happily ate their chicken, not having a problem using their fingers. I glanced at my sword, wondering if I should learn how to properly use the thing. It would be useful to learn if we would be criminals for some time. 

‘ _ Techno has a training arc TRAINING ARC POG’ _ the voices exclaimed excitedly in my head. I snorted a little in amusement.

Noctis gave me a bit of a look, mouth full of chicken. “What’s funny?” they asked, muffled somewhat. I grew tense, remembering that I had to keep the whole voices thing under wraps. 

“No-Nothing really. Just remembered something funny,” I said quickly, looking away. I was getting more and more suspicious at the minute. I really had to be better about reacting to the voices or else Noctis would very quickly find out about them. 

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of a tree branch breaking, and I was quick to pull my sword out, cautiously scanning the trees. An animal couldn’t have done it, I would have heard them by now. It was something big, more human sized. Noctis tensed up themselves, drifting towards my side as we both looked around. 

“You’ve got a terrible form,” a voice from behind us came. 

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on twitter @suna_tsukino B)


End file.
